An increasing amount of data, and in particular multimedia content, transmitted over networks has led to increased interest in ways to improve the quality and reliability of streaming data over virtual bridged local area networks. Audio Video Bridging (AVB) allows audio and/or video to be streamed over a local area network. Applications of AVB include streaming compressed and/or uncompressed audio and/or video data between various pieces of equipment. An exemplary transmission may comprise streaming uncompressed audio from an audio/video receiver to multiple networked speakers over an Ethernet network. AVB allows time-synchronized low-latency streaming services to be realized.
The data transmitted using AVB may be encapsulated into frames, in particular Ethernet frames or VLAN-tagged Ethernet frames according to IEEE 802.1Q-2011. Ethernet switches, which are also referred to as AVB bridges, may perform prioritization and traffic shaping as a function of the traffic classes which are respectively assigned to each one of the frames. According to IEEE 802.1Q-2011 as well as other AVB specifications (including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.1AS-2001, IEEE 802.1Qav-2009, and IEEE 802.1Qat-2010), different transmit rates may be used for different traffic classes. For illustration, AVB traffic class A and AVB traffic class B may have fixed transmit rates of 8 kHz and 4 kHz, respectively, assigned to them. Other transmit rates may be assigned to still other traffic classes.
The transmit rates which are conventionally used in an AVB network may require complex logics to retrieve and encapsulate data when a talker transmits frames using AVB.